Exxon CEO blames public for failure to fix climate change

> I feel like only a decade or two ago something this outrageous would have at least ended a career.

There are always such statements. We call them _politics_. /s

How is this satirical or dystopian?

It baffles me, how people pretend like they're not responsible. Sure, Exxon has probably done lots of damage that could have been prevented through how they operate. But how can one be so childish to try and put all blame on the company.

How about this comparison?

You buy a t-shirt at a local shop of some renowned chain. On the label it says "Sustainably produced .. responsibility .. fair trade ..". But in fact it's one of those garments that are sewn in some sweatshop in Bangladesh by underage children. Either your renowned chain is fooling you, or some other company further up the supply chain.

Now who's the bad guy here? Who's responsible for the bad outcome?

No, it's not you buying the t-shirt, since you had reason to believe everything is fine. Yes the company's the bad guy. Or the governement, because they apparently didn't do enough checks and apply sufficient fines. But it's not you, since you intentionally bought a product that specifically advertises being less harmfull.

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Now compare this to the following case, where you buy something else, also with a bad outcome.

You drive your car to the gas station and fill up the tank with some regular gasoline. Supplied by Exxon. In this case the bad outcome isn't child labour but instead the damage done to the environment from the whole supply chain and also from you finally emitting the CO2 by putting your foot on the pedal.

See the difference between the two cases?

The difference is: with the t-shirt, you were acting in good faith, believing your purchase didn't do any harm you didn't know about. So the child labour is not really your fault.

When you drive to the gas station on the other hand, to get yourself some gasoline, you are 100% absolutely certainly aware of the negative consequences your purchase will have on the environment. There is no sticker there, claiming the gasoline will not burn to CO2. It is 100% YOUR decision to buy the gas and burn it in your car, producing the negative outcome for the environment. If you did not buy the gas and if everyone else didn't buy the gas either, Exxon and the other companies would have a hard time making a business out of it.

Let me put it differently: you as the customer specifically bought the gasoline. You know the gas isn't some carbon neutrally produced e-fuel. Still, you bought it. There's no mysterious other way that Exxon should have produced the gas so that it magically combusts CO2-free in your car. You're not being fooled into thinking that the stuff you buy just burns to rose perfume. You made the request "Please give me some of this liquid carbohydrate mixture that turns the engine of my car while releasing CO2" and Exxon fulfilled it. The emission of CO2 doesn't happen because Exxon coerced you to buy their gas. It happens because you chose to drive a car running on gas.

You could have chosen the bicycle instead. Not Exxon's fault you didn't.

The article content is significantly less outrageous than the title suggests. I think this is one of the most ridiculous misleading headlines I've seen in a long while.

What he said is that "customers aren't willing to pay for the added cost of cleaner fossil fuels". He's not wrong. And this matters because as he also correctly states that "we’ve got to find a way to get the cost down".

The other article is missing the blaming the public part.

Fair enough sorry, this is more about the blaming of the public for climate change failures but that discussion is also happening over there because it's related/recent. ExxonMobil talk? More over there.